News: CMS updates annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings

CMS recently updated the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings on its Care Compare website and Provider Data Catalog. These ratings are assigned annually based on safety of care, readmission rates, patient experience, timeliness of care and mortality rates by CMS, the American Hospital Association (AHA) reported.

Hospitals are judged on 46 measures that are sorted into five areas of quality to determine their final ratings. These quality areas make up certain percentages of the total score: mortality (22%), safety of care (22%), readmission (22%), patient experience (22%), and timely and effective care (12%).

“As expected, this year’s CMS Hospital Overall Star Ratings distribution looks largely like 2023 given that the methodology that hospitals are rated on has remained stable for the last few years,” said Akin Demehin, AHA senior director of quality and patient safety. He explains there are multiple factors that can contribute to a hospital’s rating changing, such as the underlying measures and time periods used to calculate the performance, and minor coding changes that can affect the numbers.

He also reminds readers that the data continues to reflect the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital operations. This year, 381 hospitals earned the highest ranking of five stars (compared to 483 in 2023), 766 received four stars, 828 received three stars, 595 received two stars, and 277 received one star.

Editor’s note: To read the AHA’s coverage of this story, click here. To access the Care Compare website, click here. To view the Provider Data Catalog, click here.